Western Influence on Islamic Women's Rights and Identity

Introduction: The Western Lens on Islamic Women

September 11th and the war in Iraq managed to demonize and stereotype Islam in the popular Western mind even more than its perceived foreignness had independently achieved. In addition to the furor over Islam being linked to terrorism, renewed attention has been directed at the supposed oppression and abuse of women in Islamic cultures — to the degree that these alleged human rights abuses were cited as one of the justifications for the Bush administration's war in Iraq. However, a genuine debate remains among thoughtful people, particularly those with cultural, religious, or ethnic ties to both Islamic and Western worlds, over whether Islam actually has a negative impact on women's rights in the modern and historical Middle East.

Because the false dichotomy between "good" Western ideals and "bad" Islamic ideals has been propagated for so long, it might surprise a Western reader to learn that many people — including many women — do not feel that Islam is abusive to women, and may even feel that it is Western ideals that threaten the well-being and freedom of women. When one attempts to answer questions regarding the positive and negative impact the West has had on the lives, status, and rights of Islamic women, one is immediately confronted with the difficulty of determining what counts as "positive" and what counts as "negative." This is a value judgment that depends heavily on one's point of view.

To a socially conservative person — even a conservative Christian or Jew — negative factors would be those that undermine the traditional family, traditional marriage, and the heterosexuality and monogamy of Islamic women. For a socially liberal person of any religion, on the other hand, those same factors might be construed as positive if they functioned by dismantling patriarchy, paternalism, and social restraint. So rather than attempting to list two strictly positive and two strictly negative factors, it is more appropriate to identify two central issues and discuss the ways in which each is seen as both negative and positive by those who experience it.

Colonialism and the Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism

The first topic worthy of attention is the fact that Western military and economic colonialism — from British occupation to American banking interests and military intervention to Soviet expansionism — appears to have been one of the larger contributors to a resurgence of fundamentalist Islamic sentiment, wherever and whenever it occurred. This has been evidenced both in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire and again today with the war in Iraq. Such a cause-and-effect relationship is not difficult to understand: when a culture is threatened with military or economic eradication, it may become entrenched in custom and faith as a way to defend its unique identity. Retaining culture has always been a form of resistance.

"The inroads made by European colonialism in the waning decades of the Ottomans, and particularly post-WWI, helped stir the pot of Arab nationalism, Pan-Arabism, and radical Islam, all of which arose in response to the splintering of Islamic civilization... It is this sequence of events that brings us...a decentralized and dispirited Islamic world...resentful of previous Western colonialism, and defensive towards an encroaching globalization." (Kinney)

Like many other conservative religions today — including Judaism and Christianity — Islam was originally more liberal toward women than the surrounding cultures of its time. Certain Sufi mystics have continued this tradition of liberality. The defensive reaction of other Muslims to feminism is directly related to the fact that it is perceived as being imposed upon them by colonizing Westerners. It is worth noting that in Iraq prior to the American invasion, urban women were commonly allowed to wear more liberal clothing and to interact relatively freely with men. After the invasion, this changed significantly. Islamic religious leaders began openly equating liberal clothing styles — such as blue jeans or going unveiled — with fraternizing with the invaders: "Stop anyone who tries to imitate the American style... because they are trying to spoil Islam and the Muslim shrines." (Prusher)

A return to traditional beliefs is one way that an outgunned and occupied nation can resist. Historically, the ultra-conservative faction of Islam known as Wahhabism arose in response to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the turbulence of the World Wars. It struggles against any liberalism within other Islamic sects, and particularly targets Sufi mystics who have historically taught equality between the sexes. The Wahhabi movement's resistance helped create the political and economic strength of Saudi Arabia, but it has also lent support to terrorism as a means of opposing liberal Muslims and Western forces. There are, therefore, both negative and positive aspects to this entrenchment.

Conclusion

The question of Western influence on Islamic women resists any single verdict. The same forces that may expand women's freedoms in one context can entrench their subjugation in another. Western colonialism and military intervention have demonstrably fueled Islamic fundamentalism, which in turn has narrowed women's social and personal freedoms in many communities. At the same time, the desire to preserve cultural identity in the face of overwhelming external pressure is a deeply human impulse that cannot be dismissed simply as backward or oppressive. Any honest assessment of this issue requires acknowledging the perspective of those living within these cultures, rather than imposing an external framework of what liberation ought to look like.